We played SimCity in my shop class at school on olds macs and i like picking it back up every now and then. It still holds up better than most new games.

I actually keep a Basilisk II System 7.5 Mac environment just so that I can play SC2k from time to time ...

Unfortunately for SC4, they proceeded to make all the advisors 3D-rendered Sims. For SC2K, well:

https://www.somethingawful.com/news/simcity-advisors/4/

(that was the least offensive page to link; for the canonical experience start at page 1)

As an aside since it's in the article, what are other cultures' irreverent targets? e.g. Anglo-cultures seem to casually joke about disasters like he does here about 9/11. Somewhat diminished by the fact that he's British, not American, but Americans do it too, and the American-British interaction involves this and Irish Car Bombs taken rather lightly. I find that curious. Do the Quebecois joke about Opération Satanique and the French have likewise a thing they make fun of the Quebecois for? Or is this an Anglo-culture thing? Obviously, I principally read in English so this might be specific to my language.

The picture caption with a 9/11 joke is a little off-putting, but it's at least proof that this isn't AI generated content...

I disagree! SimCity 2K FTW. :)

Best balance of complexity IMO and ran pretty well on my old Mac. I'd love a retro-futuristic reboot.

Would it be possible to automate porting the windows version into a mac or web version? Like giving a long-running agent the task and some tools to check/play the game on both platforms?

The focus on photorealism in modern city builders took away the apophenia, or "food for imagination" that was a core element since the first SimCity. As a matter of fact, Will Wright used to say that the real simulation runs in the player's minds (or something like that).

Sure, there's something great about Cities Skylines that (at least with very powerful hardware) can look and feel like reality. But at the same time the game engine, in order to make this photorealism of terrain elevations with infinite possible shapes of infrastructure, is so complex that the actual simulation is sloppy, and feels to me like a big downgrade from SC3000.

Traffic, economics, zoning, crime, pollution. are so much practical to simulate (both in the computer, and in our mind models) in this classic isometric style.

* https://microlandia.city

edit: spelling

A SimCity 3000 tile edge was equivalent to 64m, whereas in SimCity 4 it was 16m. The scale of the city in SimCity 3000 was bigger as a result.

Hoping to test this principle of largest possible map sizes out soon.

I was so happy to score the physical “Music From SimCity 3000” soundtrack CD at the Alemany Flea Market fifteen or so years ago: https://www.discogs.com/release/794952-Jerry-Martin-Music-Fr...

> Some of the music from the original release is missing from an .ini file, even though it is present in Unlimited.

Article neglects to mention that the tracks which are included in Unlimited are lower-bitrate and monophonic compared to the same songs in stereo from the 1.0 release. Copy the same-name files from the original CD instead :)

Unlimited is sad because data-mining shows that it was almost multiplayer à la SC2k Network Edition: https://tcrf.net/SimCity_3000_Unlimited/Unused_Multiplayer_T...

When SimCity 3000 came out, I couldn't help but wonder if I inspired them. "Remember that kid was really stoked about 3000."

I firmly disagree with that point. If the game is well-made and enjoyable, the developer probably deserves some extra cash thrown their way. Games remain one of the best bang-for-your-buck when it comes to entertainment anyways. ($50 can get you DAYS of enjoyment, compared to going to a movie theater, theme park, or other paid attractions)

So yes, go ahead and purchase an enjoyable game multiple times if it's a good game. I certainly have!

This and Rollercoaster Tycoon and Doom II was my jam.

Too soon, too soon..

But they ignored him, and went off on a tangent trying to design their own ultimate totally general purpose virtual reality (and we know how well Second Life has done ;), without much thought to what was actually possible, playable, or fun on current computers.

They gave some demos of the 3D prototype to reporters, then Maxis ran out of money because it was nowhere near shipping, then EA bought us, then fired the people who were out of control, and Luc Barthelet announced to the reporters that SimCity 3000 wouldn't be 3D, but it would be 2D and beautiful.

Here is a little nugget I saved from that time: Guru's infamous SimCity 3000 design document, from when the 3D design was really going off the rails:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rnvzKdJp9tyEJwEGxsIjoHnT...

Ocean Quigley says that Guru was really sincere and believed what he said (and was not just on mushrooms).

I have to admit, that if that's true, then that Guru dude was 15 years ahead of his time, and not just a crackpot! But he should have mentioned something about the fact that it would take 15 years to develop those ideas into a shipping product!

- Peak hubris / scope explosion:

“It is possible to bridge the chasm of expectations and technology in the forthcoming year in a realistic and economical manner.”

“The Real Time Render mode shall define a visual paradigm hitherto unseen in any game or product.”

“Hence attempting to assault the cliff of expectations of the visual paradigm by means of the linear ladder fails.”

“There is a whole think tank of concepts and ideas which shall be explored and implemented…”

- Hardware reality fighting back:

“Needless to even state this is impossible performance for a delivery Pentium 75 within one year.”

“Terrifying thought. Cut the flexibility we say ! Let’s govern the flexibility I say.”

“That’s a tall order, admittedly, but then, this is an ambitious project !”

- Glorious jargon poetry:

“The semi-digested spatial data is nothing more than just that.”

“This data simultaneously suffers further transformation…”

“The motion window is always stabilized and will ‘fly’.”

“The Snapshot Port — a.k.a. The Portrait of Reality”

“causation of an event singularity for the common reference of the simulator and the visual computing system”

- The “there / that / do this” interface:

“Once ‘that’ has been identified to be able to ‘do’ ‘this’ to ‘that’…”

“The user can merely point ‘there’: and place a building. The user can point to ‘that’ building and delete it.”

“A single pencil beam shot back into the scene from the point of the mouse…”

- Biology metaphor goes full Spore:

“The species of the virtual world… shall be encoded for spatial representation as chromosomes…”

“The species itself shall be represented in its completeness as a self descriptive cell.”

“Needless to add… if transfer RNA were metaphorically the lifts of the building…”

“The other facet… is the ability to create more species by crossbreeding and mutation of species.”

- Buildings become existential -- this is the crown jewel:

  “The behavioral transformation over time has a standard pattern

   Now I’m a cylinder and Now I’m an egg
   Now I’m smooth & shiny and Now I’m not
   Now I am mottled and Now I’m not
   Now I feel mottled and Now I do not
   Now I’m here and Now I’m over there
   something or the other blah blah”

“Once the Simulator and the VC shell agree that there is a building called Big Joe’s Shark Tent…”

“yes I have neon lights, I have thirty bulbs all having high level scripts…”

“aaah OK ! you got it ! the script is queued, bye”

- Voxel fever dreams:

“This throws up the possibilities of bulldozers actually bulldozing soil. And Mining community towns actually mining inside a silver mine !!!!”

“Voxel space animation methods can actually cause earthquakes.”

“The display of a building or a city block being engulfed by splitting seams of the earth is not an impossible target…”

- Favorite one-liner:

“Modelessness is messy.”